Workshop, 1-2 November 2017, Abu Dhabi, UAE

79 Pages·2017·2.07 MB·English

MISSION INNOVATION
Accelerating the Clean Energy Revolution

Innovation Challenge #7
Affordable Heating & Cooling for Buildings

Workshop, 1-2 November 2017, Abu Dhabi, UAE

PROCEEDINGS
Table of contents

Foreword ....................................................................................................................................................... 4
Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 5
Workshop Results........................................................................................................................................ 12
Priority Area: Thermal Energy Storage ................................................................................................... 13
Priority Area: Heat Pumps ...................................................................................................................... 16
Priority Area: Non-atmospheric Heat Sinks/Sources for heat pumps ..................................................... 19
Priority Area: Predictive Maintenance & Control Optimization ............................................................. 23
Priority Area: Building level integration ................................................................................................. 26
Priority Area: Physiological studies for thermal comfort ........................................................................ 28
Cross Cutting Themes for Integrating Technologies in the Buildings .................................................... 31
Workshop Evaluation Report ...................................................................................................................... 40
Annex I: Workshop Programme .................................................................................................................. 44
Annex II: Preparatory Technical Documents .............................................................................................. 47
Annex III: List of Participants ..................................................................................................................... 75

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Foreword

These Workshop Proceedings report the technical findings of the Mission Innovation –
Innovation Challenge #7 (IC#7) Workshop which was held in Abu Dhabi (UAE) on 1 -2 Nov
2017. The Workshop brought together 65 experts from 13 Mission Innovation Members and the
Rocky Mountain Institute.
The Workshop first explored five technological priority areas and the main challenges and
actions required for each of them:
• Thermal Energy Storage
• Heat Pumps
• Non-Atmospheric Heat Sinks and Sources
• Predictive Maintenance and Optimization
• Physiological Studies for Thermal Comfort
Following this activity the Workshop participants considered the priority area Building level
integration. The experts identified and discussed a number of cross-cutting issues judged relevant
for the IC#7 developments:
• Big and open data platform & build and operational standards
• Dynamic controls
• Non-air-conditioned buildings
• Heat system integration/ prosumer networks - Climate box
• Non-technological issues, such as user acceptance, bridging the gap between R&D and
industry, skills and training

These Proceedings also include the workshop evaluation report, the preparatory technical
documents which were completed for each priority area to steer the discussion of the technical
session during the Workshop in Abu Dhabi and the list of participants.

The workshop participants are grateful to the Ministry of Energy of United Arab Emirates for
having made this event possible.
Executive Summary

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The discussion during the Abu Dhabi Workshop resulted in the identification of and
agreement upon the main challenge, and areas of action to focus on for each
priority area, reported below.

Thermal Energy Storage
The challenge
One of the biggest problems faced in low-carbon heating and cooling is the mismatch between
supply and demand associated with the utilization of variable renewable sources. Thermal
energy storage (TES) solves this problem and can be adapted in a variety of settings inside
buildings and building components, and as part of wider networks grids.
Action areas
Develop more compact thermal energy storage for domestic applications of storage periods
typically up to 4 weeks long. This will require materials that have virtually no heat losses but can
take advantage of optimized solar and wind sources without district heating and cooling network
connection.
Re-design large scale TES for district heating and cooling in order to match the seasonal supply
and demand of a large number of renewable sources on a district level. This calls for new designs
and novel materials to be used to achieve minimal surface area and double use of the top of the
storage.
Develop compact thermal energy storage for electricity load shifting. These storage devices will
take up electricity from the grid at the peak times in a day, to be used in the building for heating,
cooling or hot tap water at later times. Typical charging power is in the order of 3 kW, for periods
of up to three hours. The key development aspects here are: integration into the building heating
system and in the smart electricity grid and then storage materials and technologies.

Heat Pumps
The challenge
This priority area covers potential research to accelerate the uptake of both electrically and
thermally driven heat pumps by improving performance, reducing cost and achieving more
effective integration.

Action areas
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The main insight from the group was to think radically about heat pumps; no longer simply as a
box on the wall but instead as a market enabler, merging energy vectors and delivering new
services such as balancing.
Four key activities were identified that needed to be overcome:
1. Converting low grade heat to power (Target 60 °C heat to power at 10-20% efficiency)
2. Efficient gas to heat and cold (Target Gas Utilisation Efficiency of 1.6 (air source), 1.7
(water source) and 2.0 (in lab))
3. Integrated heating and cooling solutions (COP of 5.0 is currently achievable
theoretically but better deployment needed to achieve this in practice)
4. Improved demand side management (targets are highly grid specific but aim to ensure
security and stability of supply)

The workshop then focussed on the concept of a “Better-Box”. This would be tailored to the
specific application and geographic region but would take multiple energy sources as inputs and
transform these into heating, cooling and power demands in the most optimal way (be that lowest
carbon, lowest cost or lowest impact on the electricity grid). Internal components could include:
electrically driven heat pump; thermally or gas driven heat pump; fuel cell; refrigeration; control
system; and energy storage. The aspirational target for any “Better Box” would be to make it as
cheap to buy, as easy to install and as cheap to run as the existing, most prevalent, high carbon
alternative (e.g. gas boiler).

Non-atmospheric Heat Sinks/Sources
The Challenge
In hot climates, conventional air-cooled air conditioning system efficiency is penalized by the
high ambient air temperatures and the same is true of heat pumps in low ambient temperatures.
This priority looks to improve performance using the most promising technologies of evaporative
cooling of chiller condenser, ground/sea/aquifer/wastewater sources/sinks interconnected via
thermal network and low-wavelength radiation to deep space.
Action Areas
Develop indirect evaporative cooling of chiller by rejection of chiller waste heat against the wet
bulb temperature of the building exhaust air. The basic principles are well understood but
implementation and system integration challenges remain. Pilot projects should be conducted.
Improve system integration and precise balancing of district-wide thermal networks connecting
non-atmospheric sinks and sources with thermal energy storage. This will involve extensive case-
specific modelling and simulation to improve system design and operation. Establish the
feasibility of adding active takers/providers of heat to address heating/cooling imbalance in the
system.
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Introduce low-wavelength radiation to deep space using a special high emissivity and high
albedo film to enhance direct radiative loss from chiller condenser coils. This technology
circumvents the atmosphere and directly transfers the heat to the cooler deep space. Detailed
physical modelling and pilot projects are required as the material is still undergoing research and
development.
In all cases, the emphasis will be on modelling, designing and testing generic solutions that can
be easily adapted to specific conditions of participating countries. Metrics include lift reduction,
COP improvement, life-cycle cost, life-cycle environmental impact, market penetration potential,
present/future TRL (Technology Readiness Level), and generality versus regionality.

Predictive Maintenance & Control Optimization
The challenge
Poorly maintained, degraded, and improperly controlled HVAC equipment can waste up to 30%
of the space conditioning energy used in buildings. Manual intervention from skilled practitioners
can be highly cost effective but there is a general shortage of such skills. A variety of other
barriers also exist such as split incentives and proprietary control systems. The challenge is to
overcome these barriers by using emerging ICT technology and data science to automate this
role.
Action areas
Develop a Knowledge Hub as a way of pooling the collective international knowledge on the
topic and commission studies and surveys to supplement knowledge across different countries
and climates. (Knowledge Hub website established and existing literature reviewed and published
– June 2019 Longitudinal studies of split system/package-unit performance degradation
completed – December 2021)
Develop Data Standards to reduce the level of investment required to benchmark buildings and
compare performance to allow innovators to identify opportunities and develop solutions with
wide applicability. (Frameworks, protocols and schema adopted for standardized collection of
data – December 2019)
Establish an Open Data/ Building Emulator Platform to enable the development and testing of
new solutions at much lower cost. (Cloud based, open-data/building emulator platform
established – December 2019)
Enable and drive Innovation; while the actions above will encourage a myriad of new innovation
opportunities to be explored, there is the potential to seed Grand Challenges to the innovator
community to further accelerate activity. (Control and predictive maintenance algorithms
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developed and validated; automated diagnosis demonstrated and maintenance strategies
commercialized – December 2021).

Building-Level Integration and Cross Cutting Issues
The Challenge
Integrating different technologies together, either at the building level or district level was
identified as one of the potentially greatest opportunities to improve the overall performance of
heating and cooling systems. Following discussions in the workshop, five cross cutting areas
were identified for further action.
Action Areas
Develop big and open data platform for build and operational standards – the Open Data Sharing
Project. One of the largest problems in moving the HVAC industry forward is that
performance data sets are owned primarily by private industry and trade organizations that
do not make them publically available. As a result, there is very little comparable concrete
data in the public domain to benchmark the performance of HVAC assets in the field versus
in the lab. In the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region it has been estimated that high end
western style maintenance would be worth a 25% reduction in energy consumption and 50%
reduction in HVAC carbon footprint. Project needs are:
• Gain government and industry support behind the concept
• Create a standardized data set
• Create a standardized way to share, store and analyse this data
• Analysis of the data by academic organizations
Use automation and dynamic controls to tap into the potential for low-cost demand response
from building HVAC systems. Approaches include smart thermostats, ripple control of hot water
storage or ice banks and behavioural approaches such as “cool biz” (Japan), and peak pricing
incentives. Actions to unlock opportunities include:
• Develop more sophisticated control and engagement technologies to enable demand
response, through the advent of Internet of Things, cloud computing, model predictive
control and associated data sciences, including
o Activate thermal storage
o Widen comfort bands and utilise more sophisticated comfort sensors
o Alternative pricing models, behavioural science nudge and peer-to-peer trading
solutions
• Develop an autonomous solar cooling box that simultaneously takes both solar PV and air
conditioning off the grid, while still managing comfort.

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Develop solutions for non-air-conditioned buildings that do not use highly potent refrigerants
and consume dramatically less energy, yet provide consumers with the cooling that they
increasingly need. The energy demand and atmospheric impact of refrigerants under a business
as usual scenario represents the single largest end use risk to meeting our climate goals. Two
pathways were identified to pursue:
• A grand challenge or prize for the development and demonstration of extreme efficiency
cooling solutions that can be implemented at market acceptable cost.
• Demonstrate mid-rise, low income, multi-family building prototypes incorporating market
desirable features combined with low cost passive ‘comfort’ measures (i.e. balcony for
shading, reflective surfaces) and easy incorporation of renewable energy and plug in
future extreme efficiency cooling systems as developed under the first pathway.
Improve system integration / prosumer networks focused around taking forward the concept of a
“Better Box” described under the "Heat Pump" priority area. The concept was renamed (working
title) "the Comfort and Climate Box" and was further elaborated as an integrated heating and/or
cooling unit to include the various elements developed under the separated priority areas. Such a
“new” – decarbonized system:
• Needs to have adequate system output (in terms of heating and cooling).
• Should anticipate its impact on the overall energy systems in transition.
• Will form part of the solutions in a smart energy grid.
• Must enhance new business models for developing “heating and cooling services”.
• Should achieve consumer acceptance.
• Should be deployable on a mass market basis.
The Technology Collaboration Programmes ECES and HPT were asked to develop the idea
further in collaboration with other IEA-TCPs. It could be connected to several “super projects”
to be developed as cross-cutting the borders of the various TCP’s.
A number of non-technological issues need to be addressed in order to successfully make the
transition from technology development to actual market implementation. Further work is
required on these activities:
• End-user acceptance and end user use.
• Bridging the gap between R&D and industry.
• Opening up markets.
• Skills and training.

Physiological Studies
The Challenge
Application of various heating and cooling technology needs appropriate understanding about
human comfort needs. These needs depend upon physiological, psychological and behavioral
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